Speeches

Madam President, Commissioner, Madam President Lagarde! The numbers say it, and people feel it: Life is no longer affordable for many people. Inflation – you said it, President Lagarde – rose to 8.5% in January 2023. We have to do something about that. And the European Central Bank does the same: It raises the key interest rate. The common economic theory is that if inflation is high, you have to raise interest rates to cool the economy that is running too hot. But the economy was not too hot. The inflation crisis is the product of Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine, which has caused energy prices to soar. Speculation and inappropriate increases in profit margins do the rest. So we have a supply shock. And here a simple increase in the key interest rate, as the European Central Bank does, will not be enough and an aggressive rate increase carries risks of a recession and problems for people with loans. Therefore, further steps towards an interest rate increase should be waited for. Fiscal policy measures are needed to effectively counteract the inflation crisis. As always in business: Those who say monetary policy must also do fiscal policy. Without it, it won't work.

The next item on the agenda is the debate on the Council and Commission statements on the European Council conclusions: The need for a rapid finalisation of the roadmap (2023/2572(RSP)).

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Let me start today's speech with a simple question: Why is Siri female? Why is Alexa female? My provocative answer is: Because we are used to women working with us, having good ideas, working insanely efficiently, but somehow always just being assistants – in the case of language assistants – and then it is mainly the men in Silicon Valley who are developing the digital world – predominantly. Women can do everything that men can. Women can do IT, women can do digital – we all know that. And yet we have to keep repeating it so that even those who don't want to hear it can hear it, so that those who want to keep us women small can hear it. And that is precisely why it is so extremely important that the UN Convention on the Rights of Women meets and that we continue to advance equality year after year – together and globally – so that there are no more three more generations – up to my great-great-granddaughter – until women are finally on an equal footing. A girl growing up today needs to know that it can be anything, that it can be anything: Astronaut, roofer, site manager, cyber security expert – whatever she wants. And that is why it is of course also important that we, the European Parliament, often pioneers in so many gender equality issues, also get a correspondingly important role in New York in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Woman, that we have the hearing, that we can also act accordingly. We have a lever in our hands with politics that we can use to ensure that women, no matter where they are born, have the same opportunities as men. To conclude with the words of the great feminist Johanna Dohnal, who would have turned 84 today: “We wait a long time for goodwill. Women have always achieved only what they have fought for themselves." And that is what we do together globally, globally.

The next meeting will take place tomorrow, Tuesday 14 February 2023 at 9 a.m. The agenda has been published and is available on the European Parliament's website.

The next item on the agenda is the one-minute presentation (Rule 172), i.e. the colourful range of topics that can be dealt with in one minute. I would like to remind everyone to really use this minute, but not to overuse it.

I just repeat it also in English for those not using headphones. Stick to one minute, please. I just say that to everybody because, as you see, it's already quite late in the evening and we have really a lot of speakers.

The next item on the agenda is the debate on the report by Christophe Grudler, on behalf of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the Union Secure Connectivity Programme for the period 2023-2027 (COM(2022)0057 – C9-0045/2022 – 2022/0039(COD)) (A9-0249/2022).

The next item on the agenda is the debate on the Commission statement on the follow-up to the measures requested by Parliament to strengthen the integrity of the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies (2023/2571(RSP).

The next item on the agenda is the debate on the Commission statement on EU funding for NGOs accused of recent corruption cases and on the protection of the EU’s financial interests (2023/2563(RSP)).

The EPP Group has sent the President a decision to change appointments to a delegation. This Decision shall be entered in the minutes of today's meeting and shall enter into force on the date of this announcement.

There were no objections to yesterday's announced three-month extension of the term of office of the Special Committee on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and recommendations for the future, the Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all democratic processes in the European Union, including disinformation, and the Committee of Inquiry into the use of Pegasus and similar surveillance and spyware. These extensions are therefore deemed to have been accepted. (The meeting adjourned at 12.21)

– The next item on the agenda is the debate on the report by Sabrina Pignedoli, on behalf of the Committee on Budgetary Control, on the protection of the European Union’s financial interests – Fight against fraud – Annual Report 2021 (2022/2152(INI)) (A9-0299/2022).

Thank you very much, Commissioner, and also express special thanks for your touching words on the death of Denys Monastyrskyj, the children and all other victims.